Margaret Murray

Margaret Murray, born on July thirteenth, eighteen sixty-three, was a pioneering British Egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, historian, and folklorist. Raised in a wealthy middle-class family in Calcutta, British India, she spent her formative years in India, Britain, and Germany. Initially training as a nurse and social worker, she shifted her focus to Egyptology in eighteen ninety-four at University College London (UCL), where she developed a significant friendship with Flinders Petrie, the head of the department.

In eighteen ninety-eight, Murray became the first woman appointed as a lecturer in archaeology in the United Kingdom. Her groundbreaking work included participating in excavations at Abydos, Egypt, where she discovered the Osireion temple, and investigating the Saqqara cemetery, both of which solidified her reputation in the field. Notably, in nineteen oh eight, she led the unwrapping of Khnum-nakht, marking the first time a woman publicly unwrapped a mummy, further demonstrating her commitment to making Egyptology accessible to the general public through her writings.

During the First World War, unable to return to Egypt, Murray turned her attention to the witch-cult hypothesis, proposing that the witch trials of Early Modern Christendom aimed to extinguish a surviving pagan religion. Although this theory faced academic discredit, it significantly influenced the emerging Wicca movement. From nineteen twenty-one to nineteen thirty-one, she conducted excavations in Malta and Menorca, deepening her interest in folkloristics and earning an honorary doctorate in nineteen twenty-seven.

After retiring from UCL in nineteen thirty-five, Murray continued to contribute to archaeology and folklore, leading excavations in Palestine and Petra, Jordan. She served as president of the Folklore Society from nineteen fifty-three to nineteen fifty-five and lectured at prestigious institutions, including the University of Cambridge. Despite her later work facing criticism, her contributions to Egyptology earned her the affectionate title of 'The Grand Old Woman of Egyptology,' while her influence on the study of witchcraft has led to her being recognized as the 'Grandmother of Wicca.'